The mill in the Ardennes

Information

Description

English

This is the story The Mill in the Ardennes – one volume in a series of penny magazines. Penny magazines were cheap booklets, which were read by many people, especially from the working class. In this story, German soldiers discover a dead miller and his family. Later, four Germans are killed while sleeping. The murderers, a group of Belgian franc-tireurs (sharpshooters), are found and killed by German soldiers, an act much appreciated by the Belgian people.

The Germans are depicted here as good-natured do-gooders, who use violence only in emergencies. The German reader is given the impression that German soldiers in occupied Belgium always behave well. In reality, the Germans killed hundreds of innocent civilians during the occupation.